You can feel it happening...
Okay, try to relax. Tell yourself it's not real. It's just a dream, a delusion of summer.
But you can feel it happening...
The Death Barge has a six-game lead in the AL East. We're a lock for the postseason, where - as the Oracles of YES constantly assure us - anything can happen. (As in, maybe we can beat the mighty Dodgers!)
Still, you can feel it, the sense that:
a) We've been here before.
b) Our team is built for April, not August.
c) The age of our lineup is a ticking time bomb.
d) Injuries will soon batter this team.
e) We have few trade assets on the farm.
Last year, the Yankees rolled through May with the best record in the AL. On June 6, they led Baltimore by three games, as the Redsocks, Rays and Jays struggled to lift their hateful heads over .500.
Then the worm turned. We played listlessly through June and July, one game above .500, and never recaptured the momentum of early spring. We managed to rise through the first rounds of the postseason, only to be painfully undressed in the national spotlight.
You can feel it happening...
It's not just last night. Yeah, they looked bad, (aside from Ben Rice and the Captain, who each contributed two hits.) But Trent Grisham's batting average continues to plummet. (On May 7, he was hitting .292. He's now at .244.) One day after his glorious HR, Jazz Chisholm fanned three out of four times. The bullpen, without Luke Weaver, looks perilously thin. And Giancarlo Stanton continually haunts the roster, with no place for a 35-year-old DH, who might not be able to run.
Meanwhile, the rest of the division - all of whom have superior farm systems, full of trade chips or youthful infusions - is waking up. After a dreadful spring, Baltimore has won 5 straight. The Jays and Rays have finally settled their lineups. This weekend, the Redsocks, who have been savaged by the Boston media, come to Gotham City, ready for their personal Subway Series.
Look: I get it. As fans, we cannot assign supernatural importance to every game, every series, every week. It's a long, long season. The Yankees will rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and - well - fall. But it's no longer May, and there is meaning to the phrase "June swoon." That six game lead is about to start melting. You can feel it coming...
Brian Cashman has radicalized me, turned me into a stone-cold baseball nihilist. I still believe in the concept of magic, but not from this ownership/management combination. As David Byrne dirged on, "same as it ever was, same as it ever was..." nothing changes, nothing changes. definition of insanity: keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. I could go on, but I'll refrain...until tomorrow, most likely.
ReplyDeleteIn heaven. . .
DeleteEverything is Fine.
Breath deep the gathering gloom. . .
Watch lights fade in every room.
Comments, clichés, commentary, controversy -
Chatter, chit-chat, chit-chat, chit-chat -
Conversation, contradiction, criticism -
Duque has nailed it. The ol’ June Swoon is upon us. The offense is offensive. What happens if Judge gets hurt? All of the other AL East teams, hot now, will settle into mediocrity along with the Yankees, so it’s easy to see a battle of 85 win teams at the end of September.
ReplyDeletePrepare for an embarrassing series against the carmines at home.
ReplyDeleteAmen, Duque—and you nailed it, too, Bitty, as usual. I guess this is more of our karmic punishment for the great, 20th century: an endless, hellish repetition of the same meltdown, the same way, year in and year out.
ReplyDeleteYep, Jazz reverted to form in a damned hurry. And I have to admit...I've lost my faith in the Judge. Two hits—and two strikeouts when he could have broken the game open. He is the worst clutch-hitting great player—and he is a very great player—I have ever seen.
Like the team, too many of us have seen many, many, many moons come and go. We can no longer enjoy the good times knowing that that stick is actually somebody's escaped pet. A black mamba. My advice is to drink heavily.
ReplyDeleteKevin - are you suggesting that we all pack on twenty to thirty pounds and start drinking?
Delete"Anything" cannot fucking happen. Anything doesn't work that way. Anything means Wells could have a 3 hit game, not that the Yanks could beat the Dodgers! A meteor would have to crater Chavez ravine during LAs calisthenics for these Yankees to best THOSE DODGERS!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe elders say that it was in fact a giant meteor that caused Chavez Ravine to form so many years ago
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